OTHER ARTICLES
Article from the
News Chronicle
No. 29,658
of May 28, 1941
Front page. |
HOW GERMANY
WAS TOLD
This was how Berlin gave the news of the Bismarck's end:
" At 11.42 p.m. Admiral Luetjens sent the following report to the High Command: 'Ship incapable of manoeuvres. Will fight to the last shell. Long live the Fuehrer.
(Signed) Chief of Fleet.' The battleship Bismarck went on fighting until finally, on the morning of May 27, she went down before superior forces."
The High Command stated that Admiral Luetjens and Captain Lindeman were among those who lost their lives.
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Article from the
News Chronicle
No. 29,658
of May 28, 1941
Page 2. Col 2. |
Account Paid
The Bismarck - "unsinkable" as the Maginot Line was "impregnable" - has swiftly followed the Hood to the sea bottom.
When the Hood blew up, the Navy set its teeth and went all out for vengeance.
Now the account is paid.
The loss of our fine ship, and even more of the brave and expert seamen aboard her, was a grievous blow.
Yet the Hood, splendid though she was, was more than 20 years old and could not compare with the brand new Bismarck as a fighting ship.
The lost German battleship was Hitler's pride - the last word in power at sea.
On any hard calculation, the battle has brought us victory - which will prove greater still if the accompanying Nazi cruiser, Prinz Eugen, is in due course destroyed.
Moreover, the proportionate loss to Germany is immensely greater than to us.
Hitler's exiguous fleet of capital ships, already deprived of the services of the Graf Spee, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, will feel the destruction of the Bismarck as a staggering blow.
Its capacity for commerce raiding or for any other nefarious project is notably reduced.
*
There is another thing about the interception and sinking of the Bismarck which we must take into account.
We do not know upon what mission she was embarked - it might have been the occupation by arrangement with Vichy, of a French West African port - but we may be sure that, whatever it was, it was important and whatever it was, it has failed.
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Article from the
News Chronicle
No. 29,658
of May 28, 1941
page 3. |
Greatest Sea
Chase Ever
The Bismarck was finally destroyed after what must be the greatest sea chase in history.
Named as taking part in the hunt were four battleships (King George V., Prince of Wales, Ramillies and Rodney), two battle cruisers (Hood and Renown), two aircraft-carriers (Ark Royal and Victorious), four cruisers (Norfolk, Suffolk, Dorsetshire and Sheffield), and a number of destroyers, led by the Cossack.
Prince of Wales, Britain's newest battleship, is a sister ship of King George V., and it was disclosed only last month that she was in service with the Fleet.
The two sister ships, first of a class of five (both of 35,000 tons) are the most powerful units of the Royal Navy.
Dorsetshire, the 9,975-ton cruiser which gave the coup de grace to Bismarck, is sister ship of the Norfolk; built 1928-29.
Victorious, 23,000 tons, sister ship of Illustrious, is one of the six newest aircraft carriers, the first four of which were laid down in 1937 for completion in 1940.
The "much sunk" Ark Royal (22,000 tons), planes from which also played their part, carries 60 aircraft.
The Sheffield, 9,000-ton cruiser, commissioned in 1937, took part in bombardment of Genoa in February.
The destroyer Cossack rescued 300 British merchantmen in the Nazi prison ship Altmark, and was also in second battle of Narvik.
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Article from the
News Chronicle
No. 29,658
of May 28, 1941
page 3. |
Nazis Claimed
Her " Unsinkable "
Germany has now lost about one-third of her bigger ships, and the sinking of Bismarck far out-weighs the loss of the Hood (writes a naval correspondent).
Bismarck, claimed by the Nazis to be "unsinkable," had a speed of about seven knots in advance of all British battleships, except those of the new George the Fifth class.
Since war began the German naval losses in surface ships above the category of destroyers have been: Bismarck, pocket-battleship Admiral Graf Spee (10,000 tons).
Cruisers: Bluecher (10,000), Leipzig (6,000), Konigsberg (6,000), Karlsruhe (6,000).
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